Regarding emergency rescue and evacuation, fire departments have no efficient and safe systems with which to service emergencies above the reach of ladder trucks. Reed's High-Rise Emergency Rescue Egress System would provide quicker access to the crisis and a safe escape for emergency responders and the inhabitants occupying a high-rise building during a disaster.
The use of this high-rise system would result in lower operating cost and limited municipal liability caused by fires, earthquakes, terrorist attacks or other high-rise emergencies. Those who will benefit from the cost efficient system come from the private and public sector, high-rise owners, building operation management companies, tenants, metropolitan cities, county communities, insurance companies and all property owners.
Several publications have documented the aforesaid danger to life, as evidenced in Mr. Catalan's U.S. Pat. No. 6,598,703 B1. Mr. Catalan's invention illustrates a series of collapsible chutes on the exterior walls of a high-rise building, to evacuate occupants in case of emergencies. The prior art demonstrated by Mr. Catalan would allow users to be overcome by smoke inhalation due to the fact the interior structure of the descending chute apparatus is designed similar to a chimney or flue structure plan and could possibly cause such a system to draw or pull smoke inward, and upward, thus, causing injury or death to the occupants. Further, emergency responders have limited access to the upper floors due in part to the downward spiral of Mr. Catalan's emergency evacuation system. It should also be noted that such a system would be limited to stability and movement around the face of a high-rise building.
Another prior art high-rise emergency evacuation system is demonstrated by Mr. Kucher, U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,384. Mr. Kucher's prior art depicts an evacuation system which contains a wench and cable device placed on the parapet of a high-rise building which allows cable to be lowered and connected to a platform type carrier and said cabin being controlled by a mechanical ground unit using an electric umbilical cord for control. Most high-rise building codes will not allow weight to be placed on the upper, exterior wall structure of a high-rise building. Mr. Kucher's high-rise evacuation system could be restricted because of wind currents and positioning outside the walls of a high-rise building. Another disadvantage may be the lack of roof access abilities for the emergency responders. Most firemen and firefighters are reluctant to use fire fighting equipment that may be operated by people other than their fire fighting factuality. Mr. Kucher's prior art describing his emergency evacuation invention does not afford firemen the choice for operating such a system.
Mr. Lian-Chen Chen, U.S. Pat. No. 6,467,575, proposes, in prior art, an emergency evacuation device, for high-rise buildings which deploys a chute type conglomeration, from a movable roof-mount, rail system, that allow building occupants to enter the device and slide to safety, below. A movable chute evacuation system such as Mr. Chen's is limited because of different size and shape high-rise buildings and window openings for access and egress. The configuration of this type of evacuation system would not be cost effective for the building owners and might be hazardous for those who elected to use such a system. Each of these prior art references demonstrates efforts to devise high-rise building external rescue devices which are dependable. None of the prior art devices, however, have met this requirement.